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1/29/13

A few weeks ago I was in the mood for dessert. We had crescent rolls in our refrigerator that had been there for a month. I've seen so many recipes that include crescent rolls, cream cheese and jalapeno, peanut butter, oh and then I remembered I saw one withincluded nutella! I have nutella?! So I put those two bad boys together and deliciousness was made.

1/28/13

I'm not gonna lie I had a really busy weekend. Without Jerry a busy weekend is even harder than I ever thought. I actually feel like I used the word "hard" so loosely when Jerry was home. Now that he's away, I know the true meaning of hard and so so tired. I originally told myself while Jerry was gone I wasn't going to go out EVER! It's week two and both Friday and Saturday I had some "me" time. Today is about Friday, I just want to say FOR THE RECORD not every restaurant my friends and I visit do we make our own food, it just so happens the past two, we do. =)
Los Angeles has DINE LA, a bunch of restaurants put together a fixed menu at a great price. The idea is to bring in business. They usually put very popular items on the menu and then YOU get to visit a bunch of very nice sometimes high end restaurants at a fixed price. Molly, Christina and I chose Gyu-Kaku. I would describe Gyu-Kaku as a high end korean bbq. I only say high end because the meat is the tenderest I've ever tasted and the sides...cheese corn, mushrooms, spicy tuna volcano, sukiyaki bimbimpa (basically fried rice). You know you go to dinner and totally forget your "watching what you eat." Everything was amazing, everything of course except the tongue (um yeah, ew).

And the beef tongue. So server brings out our last meat dishes and says, "and this last one is the finest tongue," umm come again now? Tongue, I've had tongue before and I guess its okay, not my fav but I dont know why the shape of these meats freaked me out more than anything...cause they look like tongues. When Christina was cooking mine (she's the designated chef when we go out) it looked exactly like a tongue and I just couldn't eat it. We called the server over and explained we just didn't want the tongue, but he said if we tried it and didn't like it then he'd bring us something else. We tried, we didn't like, however I'm just realizing that server DIDN'T bring us another dish?!!?! Rude. If you're in the LA area you should totally check out Dine LA it ends February 1st, there's still time!
ps. I am a guest blogger over at Life Unfluffed today! Erika is such a sweetie and just had her second little angel Hazel. Go over and say hi, oh and there's vintage pics of Ardo, perhaps one of him in a burrito? Just sayin.

1/25/13

Last December my sister Marcy came to me with an idea she wanted to do for Ardo. A picture a day for a whole year. I'm not gonna lie as soon as she told me, all I could think about was the WORK. I knew remembering to take a picture of him every single day would be a lot to remember, and then a fun project turns....not so fun? She convinced me tho considering she sees Ardo 4 days a week I'd only be responsible for 3. Good deal! On December 31, 2012 the project was over and my sister and I got to making the short video. This is the first project I've made with my mac book pro and my heart is so happy with how it came out. I thought the timing was funny because as we are putting together our short film, I saw other blogs I frequent are doing a portrait a week (ps check out Amelias blog, I just love it, she's so funny and that Ralphie!).
Remember when I said I thought it was going to be a lot of work?! I was right, it was, my sister would remind me every Thursday and every weekend. Towards the end I would tell my sister is it December 31 yet?? She'd say just a little bit longer. After we finished, I was embarrassed I complained, the finished product brought tears to my eyes, to watch my son grow up for an entire year 1 picture at a time, it's something I'll always treasure..plus the song we chose, thank you John Lennon for writing the most glorious song for a little boy. I promise the video is only 2:30 okay maybe its 2:32 but it's an easy two minutes. =)

1/23/13

I'm born and raised in Los Angeles County. I live 15 mins from Hollywood. I NEVER GO THERE. Cause you know, what for? Everything I need is in my own city. When I was in high school my friends and I would eat in Hollywood and then just drive around "actin cool". Then at 21 we went to bars and some clubs in Hollywood for fun (hello, club beat it). When I moved to Alabama, for a short time while Jerry was stationed there, everytime someone asked me where I was from I would say Los Angeles. If I said the which city of course no one would know but Los Angeles is pretty broad. Of course the next question is, ever see any movie stars? The answer actually is yes, I've seen famous people, but NOT in Hollywood. Beverly Hills, Malibu places like that, walking down Hollywood Blvd the only famous people you'll see is the impersonators. I've been thinking of starting a new series on blog called exploring my city. I thought this would be fun because there are restaurants and just places I've passed by a million times but have never gone in. With Jerry gone and me having some time on my hands (kinda) I thought this would be the perfect time. So {exploring my city} was born. The first exploration is Hollywood Blvd. This was a shorter trip, but nonetheless eventful. I have a little cousin who lives in Colorado and her class is doing a project. They made paper dolls and sent them to relatives to have the relatives take the dolls on an adventure. So two birds with one stone, I took mine to Hollywood. Oh Hollywood, when I was a little girl everytime a new Disney movie came out we all went to the El Capitan to watch it. Memories like that I feel so lucky to have. So we trekked down to Hollywood on Sunday morning. First there was a thousand people there, but we made the best of it. I felt like such a tourist with my nikon around my neck. Highlights::
1. weather was a perfect 80 degress
2. found a new sweater while Ardo was a perfect angel in the store
3. Mel's diner yummmmm
4. oh and we saw this homeless man trying to pick the lock at the Jimmy Kimmel studio and his pants were down exposing his butt. That was interesting. I work in downtown Los Angeles, so you know....whateves. (man not pictured)
and 5. After our adventure we treated ourselves to Sprinkles. Cause you know, why not.

Someone likes Penelope Cruz

One thing I have fulfilled is my resolution to add more color in my life. All black is out (well not all the time I mean sometimes its a must) but I'm really enjoying these splashes of color!

1/22/13

So a few things have been going on in our little apartment. Ardo got what was seemingly a small cold. No biggie. I've been very lucky and Ardo really doesn't get sick too often. Except when he does get sick, they seem to be the WORSE OF THE WORSE!!
On Tuesday Ardo began coughing and for 3 days he couldn't seem to shake it, in fact it was getting worse. By Friday Jerry and I took him to urgent care, Friday he was REALLY sick, he had a temperature, he was barely eating and of course that cough. The urgent care Dr informs us his little cold has turned into Bronchitis! I'm floored, I've never even had bronchitis before. Saturday night was one of the hardest nights we've had with Ardo in a very long time. He was up crying and MISERABLE! Jerry had to be at the airport and we were leaving at 4:45am. I was worried about waking up Ardo and how everything would work but Ardo wound up staying up from 2am to when we had to leave. I felt so bad for Ardo, he was congested and couldn't sleep, but I kinda felt worse for Jerry. It was a bad way to send him off. I just wanted us to cuddle all night, if Ardo wanted to cuddle too that would be even better, but instead we wound up just praying to get an hour of consecutive sleep. I am happy to report that Ardo is now back to normal. His Bronchitis has completely cleared up and he's a happy little boo again. I'm one tired mama but that's for another post....this week.
ps 3 weeks into January, and I've already broken my new years resolution, I didn't post 3 times last week like I wanted too. UGH!! But I kinda have a good excuse?? Okay no excuses, I'm not going to let my whole resolution go to hell in a hand basket tho, I will recover and take it from here.

1/15/13

You know what I love about the park??? Its Free!!
Daddy left on Sunday for a little bit, so it's just me and Ardo. Ardo sent daddy off tho with a horrible-waking up every few seconds-acting cray- kinda send off (more on that later, lots more). Happy Tuesday? I originally planned this post for Monday but.....I have no excuses, it's Tuesday!

Ps take a gander at Jerry's face, he's waaay to happy to be on that dino!

1/9/13

Dressing a little boy is not a challenge, but with boys its different. Accessories are a lot different. In my mind, boys are just a little more simple, so when I can find a unique accessory, I jump on it. Enter Old Navy's VEST! I saw this vest back in September right before we went to San Francisco as soon as I saw it I was reminded of The Goonies. Although no one in The Goonies wore this vest, it reminded me of adventure and of course the 80's. Oh the 80's although I was just a baby, the fashion was hilarious. So colorful and puffy. On Christmas, Mai and Pat (Jerry's cousins) gave us another awesome eighties vest (pictured). They are just perfect for these cold days. Ardo actually prefers them to jackets. Oh and the other day he was the coolest dressed kid at the indoor playground! =)

1/8/13

This year I've made a couple that I really want to stick too. I don't want them to be just for the year but what I love about New Years is, it's a time to start over. I have a few resolutions::

1. Blog at least 3 times per week:: When I started this blog in back in March, one thing I worried about was being consistent. It was very soon after I started I took a few weeks hiatus for Ardos first birthday. I would say my biggest excuse is, "I'm busy" then I once in a while I'll check my stats and see I've only had 20 pageviews that day and get a little sad. But DUH! How can I expect anyone to come back to this gray rainbow, if I'm not writing anything new! Right? Right.

2. Master my camera:: In August I bought the nikon d3000 from my friend Laura. My picture taking has definitely improved, but I want to know everything. I want to be able to explore more lenses, understand lighting, just get the most use out of my camera that I can. 3. Master my Macbook Pro:: For Christmas Jeromes bought me a mac book pro. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I'll take it! So yeah, gotta learn how to use this guy. I've only ever used PC's. I'm very happy to be switching to the wonderful world of Mac.

4. And lastly, incorporate color into my wardrobe:: I've always been a black and gray kinda girl but I just want to change that. So I've started, a couple weeks ago I went to Madewell in Pasadena and they were having this CRAAAAZY sale. 30% off the sale price, I walked out with a pair of corduoroy coral color pants for...............$14.00 bucks! I will continue to add color til I'm basically a COLORFUL rainbow =).

1/7/13

Challenges are always welcome in my home. I've been a lover of yan yan for about as long as I can remember. I mean, who could say no to biscuit sticks and chocolate? YUM, so the other day, I was downstairs in our building cafeteria and I spotted this :: nutella and go. I was skeptical because I really don't like change, so I grabbed some and tried it out. Hmm, pretty good. Then immediately I felt a rush, was I betraying my childhood snack yan yan, by trying this imposter?? That's when I thought of having a challenge. Eat I ate both to decide once and for all which is the best. Ardo couldn't decide, I think he was just happy to have chocolate for lunch, Jerry was on the fence but said he really liked the nutella (pssh trader!) but for me(and Wendy Williams), I'll always go with the legend and yan yan has my heart. Challenge Completed.

1/4/13

Last week on a Saturday night Jerry and I went out...JUST THE TWO OF US!! Jerry is going to be doing a lot of traveling for the next several months so before it starts we decided to have a date night. Truth is we haven't had a date night in a really long time. We do go out sometimes without Ardo, or we have people come over when Ardo is asleep but we always seem to be with other people. It's very rare we go out just him and I. Saturday night we dropped of Ardo with Jerrys mom and headed off to Lawrys. If you live in Los Angeles, then you Lawrys is no joke when it comes to deliciousness. OH that cream corn...TO DIE FOR!! I got dressed up, I had a glass of wine (because I was classy and didn't go for a beer), and we just talked. Once we got to our table, I almost forgot about everything else. Usually I'm worried about Ardo or worried about anything else, but I really savored the moment. Jerry and I talked about our future, about love, the conversation just kept flowing. Our future is very important and we touched on things we hadn't discussed before. Being a military family, many factors come into play. We might have to move one day, or Jerry could be deployed, the possibilities are endless. So we discussed our plan and what will work for us. In between all the conversation there was that delicious amazing, prime rib. Oh that Jeromes (I call him that sometimes for fun) I really love that guy. He's the ying to my yang.

1/3/13

I envisioned Ardo waking up Christmas morning calling from his crib and as soon as he saw his new slide, he would get sooo excited and demand to go down. Well....he woke up but my vision of Christmas morning went the toddler way, not the mama way. Ardo was such a crab in the morning. The slide, he barely noticed, all he wanted to do was EAT! While Jerry was getting Ardo some breakfast he peed and for some reason because this hasn't happened in months, he peed through his diaper and all over his santa pj pants. I mean, I just had to laugh at that point because it was just ridiculous. That is why is some of his pictures he isn't wearing pants, they were being cleaned!

Our Christmas morning for the past two Christmas' have been a little bit of chaos. We open gifts first, then head to my moms and Jerrys mom. That plan went off without a hitch. We arrived at my moms a little after 9 ate breakfast, again and opened gifts. Ardo had warmed up by that and now he was into it. My family (oops I mean santa) got Ardo a little bbq set and clothes clothes and more clothes! Of course like any toddler, Ardo just wanted that box! Although now hes cooking up burgers on a daily basis. Ardo played at my moms for a little bit then off to Jerrys parents we went. More clothes (yay!!) and toys, but the big mama of gifts is the electric car Ardo's nino gave him. He can't reach the pedals just yet but we all had fun with it. I'm thankful to say a few big gifts stay at nana and abues house for when Ardo visits. Beyond all the gifts, the time we spend with family during the holidays is such a special time. I know most people take the holidays as a time to see family and friends they haven't seen in awhile, but for me, what I love is spending time with family I'm closest too. Looking around and seeing every face that I see on a random Thursday for dinner, I love that. When I was a little kid, we would go to one of my aunts house or sometimes my grandparents. Every year either my dad or a cousin would dress up as Santa. Perhaps when Ardo gets older and as we add more kids to the mix, a Santa coming to Christmas would be a tradition I'd like to start. I'd get a kick out of it if Ardo realized it's daddy.

1/2/13

Like some of our other holidays, Christmas Jerry's family and my family get together as ONE family. I've touched on this before how nice it is but whenever there are holidays I'm reminded once again two families together as one. I would like to be able to write that Ardo had a modest Christmas, but truthfully, when you have a large family and only one grandchild, that's a hard task to accomplish. I told both my mom and Jerry's mom not to go crazy and Ardo didn't need to much, but basically that goes in one ear out the other. I'm always so grateful but I think we could really use another apartment, one to live in and one for Ardo's toys.

Ardo had a scream-fest Christmas Eve, I wish I would have taken video, he was the happiest little elf. For his outfit of choice, sometime in November Old Navy had both Elf and Santa pjs, I thought they were the sweetest thing, so instead of dressing Ardo up in Sunday best for Christmas, we decided to take him very comfortable and ready for bed. Our little elf, our sweet little elf.

Sidenote :: Every year we play white elephant, but boy did we step it up this year. Not one gift that someone unwrapped did I not "should I steal it??". I can't wait to share what I stole.....from my mom! haha ::